Danger! Danger...
(this was what I was doing when my nose decided to bleed everywhere...)
warning, rant.
For anyone who doesn't know, Poland is an EU member country. Poland is also a country that is becoming dangerously right wing and is now doing something that that Nazi did all those years ago. Of course because they are a EU member country no one is going to say anything we're just going to sit around and watch, they also don't care. Also for those who don't know, Poland's government is currently made up a joint coalition between the League of Polish Families and Law and Justice Party.
The Polish Minister of Education Roman Giertych (member of the League of Polish Families) has started a policy to remove any books from schools that were written by homosexual writers. He is replacing these writers with people like Jan Dobraczynski who wrote eulogies to John Paul II and is very conservative. Other writers are unknown. Even Plato is being excluded, just because he was a homosexual. It is not just homosexuals who are facing this outrage, Joseph Conrad is also excluded, because of his 'unpatriotic behaviour' - Kafka and Goethe are under threat too.
The Polish government fear a breakdown in family values and morals due to 'foreign influences' from the West. Only the other week the government watchdog for children's rights (Ewa Sowinska) issued a warning about the Teletubbies, claiming they were bringing homosexuality into families and corrupting children. Why are the teletubbies homosexual? One carries a handbag and another has a triangle on it's head. Ewa Sowinska stated that she found that they "may [have] a homosexual undertone."
Homophobia is wrong at any time, but when it is a government sanctioned homophobia it's worrying. Ministers in Poland have linked homosexuality to paedophilia, the president (Lech Kaczyñski) calls gay people "perverts". On a visit to England he spoke out against 'gay culture', saying that it would cause the death of heterosexuality in Europe. He said in an interview on News Night (8th November 2006) "[...] for what's called 'gay culture', it can never be seen as an alternative to heterosexual culture. If a 'gay culture' were to be an accepted alternative it could mean that especially here in Europe, our heterosexual culture would disappear." He refused to allow a Pride parade whilst mayor of Warsaw, yet gave permits for a 'normality' parade.
A lot of Eastern European LGBT groups don't want Pride marches to go ahead as it is something they see as provoking the anti-gay sentiments, they want to use other means to gain support and this is happening. A popular TV series in Russia which has a huge fan following and spawns a great number of slash fiction has invited prominent slash writers to a special gala and in a recent TV interview they said (paraphrasing, sorry) that what will happen next will be big and "slashers don't get too excited", whilst the other actor added "I would never be a bottom." We're not talking about Russia or Belraus or any other non EU country, we are talking about a homophobic member of the EU who breaks EU conventions.
To allow a 'normality' march is a great slap in the face to any homosexual, it's clear that Poland's stance is that homosexuals are the greater evil in the world and they are not normal. In May 2007 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this banning of the Warsaw Pride March in 2005 was a violation of basic human rights. An 'illegal' march went ahead and there were violent clashes between marches and the far-right youth group All-Polish Youth (All-Polish Youth was founded in 1989 by the current Education Minister and is affiliated with the ruling part League of Polish Families).
Another minister Wojciech Wierzejski (member of the Law and Justice Party), is calling for a police probe into 'gay groups' over protests about his anti-gay stance. He claims that 'homos' are conspiring against him and says that gay people want to inflict their 'deviant' ways on schools and vows as long as he is government minister "there will be no homosexual propaganda in schools."
Yet, back in 2003 Poland was considering allowing civil unions. The bill was proposed by the senator Maria Szyszkowska, supported by the ruling Democratic Left Alliance party and the head of the Self-Defence Party, despite the support people knew that this would not go ahead as Poland is a strict Catholic country nevertheless to have been this tolerant four years ago, it is a massive u-turn.
The EU are not getting involved, even though this member country has been found guilty of violating Human Rights. How long with we just sit back and let this happen? Even news stories concerning protests against Poland are being hidden away and the so-called unbiased BBC has not given an ounce of coverage to any of these events, yet will go on about non-EU members breaches of Human Rights in this manner. London Mayor Ken Livingston spoke out against the Lativa governments stance on the Pride March that was allowed to go ahead peacefully in Riga this month, where are his comments or any comments from British ministers concerning the same situation in Poland?
The European Convention states that member countries must "ensure that LGBT people are protected from homophobic hate speech and violence" and be treated with "respect, dignity and protection". How can we speak out against Lativa and stay silent on Poland?
Sources: (Sorry it's mostly 'The Rainbow Network', it's difficult to find other news sources on this issue. If you find any, please send me them.)
Writers facing expulsion from Poland's schools (The Times, June 9th), Gay Pride in Riga Goes Ahead Peacefully (Rainbow Network, 5th June), Livingstone: Latvia Must Allow Pride To Go On Peacefully (Rainbow Network, 4th June), Tinky-Winky's been Handbagged (The Times, May 30th), Youth Protest Outside Polish Embassy (Rainbow Network, 21st May), Warsaw Pride Broke EU Convention (Rainbow Network, 4th May), Anti-Gay Miniser Blames 'Homos' for Protests (Rainbow Network, 18th May 2006), Polish President Warns against Gay Culture (Rainbow Network, 8th November 2006), Poland Plans Civil Unions (Rainbow Network, 29th August 2003)
Normal events are being resumed now... (ie I'm thinking up ways to torture Holmes and working on my article), just had to get that off my chest. I might upload some pretty pictures later to make up for ranting....
warning, rant.
For anyone who doesn't know, Poland is an EU member country. Poland is also a country that is becoming dangerously right wing and is now doing something that that Nazi did all those years ago. Of course because they are a EU member country no one is going to say anything we're just going to sit around and watch, they also don't care. Also for those who don't know, Poland's government is currently made up a joint coalition between the League of Polish Families and Law and Justice Party.
The Polish Minister of Education Roman Giertych (member of the League of Polish Families) has started a policy to remove any books from schools that were written by homosexual writers. He is replacing these writers with people like Jan Dobraczynski who wrote eulogies to John Paul II and is very conservative. Other writers are unknown. Even Plato is being excluded, just because he was a homosexual. It is not just homosexuals who are facing this outrage, Joseph Conrad is also excluded, because of his 'unpatriotic behaviour' - Kafka and Goethe are under threat too.
The Polish government fear a breakdown in family values and morals due to 'foreign influences' from the West. Only the other week the government watchdog for children's rights (Ewa Sowinska) issued a warning about the Teletubbies, claiming they were bringing homosexuality into families and corrupting children. Why are the teletubbies homosexual? One carries a handbag and another has a triangle on it's head. Ewa Sowinska stated that she found that they "may [have] a homosexual undertone."
Homophobia is wrong at any time, but when it is a government sanctioned homophobia it's worrying. Ministers in Poland have linked homosexuality to paedophilia, the president (Lech Kaczyñski) calls gay people "perverts". On a visit to England he spoke out against 'gay culture', saying that it would cause the death of heterosexuality in Europe. He said in an interview on News Night (8th November 2006) "[...] for what's called 'gay culture', it can never be seen as an alternative to heterosexual culture. If a 'gay culture' were to be an accepted alternative it could mean that especially here in Europe, our heterosexual culture would disappear." He refused to allow a Pride parade whilst mayor of Warsaw, yet gave permits for a 'normality' parade.
A lot of Eastern European LGBT groups don't want Pride marches to go ahead as it is something they see as provoking the anti-gay sentiments, they want to use other means to gain support and this is happening. A popular TV series in Russia which has a huge fan following and spawns a great number of slash fiction has invited prominent slash writers to a special gala and in a recent TV interview they said (paraphrasing, sorry) that what will happen next will be big and "slashers don't get too excited", whilst the other actor added "I would never be a bottom." We're not talking about Russia or Belraus or any other non EU country, we are talking about a homophobic member of the EU who breaks EU conventions.
To allow a 'normality' march is a great slap in the face to any homosexual, it's clear that Poland's stance is that homosexuals are the greater evil in the world and they are not normal. In May 2007 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this banning of the Warsaw Pride March in 2005 was a violation of basic human rights. An 'illegal' march went ahead and there were violent clashes between marches and the far-right youth group All-Polish Youth (All-Polish Youth was founded in 1989 by the current Education Minister and is affiliated with the ruling part League of Polish Families).
Another minister Wojciech Wierzejski (member of the Law and Justice Party), is calling for a police probe into 'gay groups' over protests about his anti-gay stance. He claims that 'homos' are conspiring against him and says that gay people want to inflict their 'deviant' ways on schools and vows as long as he is government minister "there will be no homosexual propaganda in schools."
Yet, back in 2003 Poland was considering allowing civil unions. The bill was proposed by the senator Maria Szyszkowska, supported by the ruling Democratic Left Alliance party and the head of the Self-Defence Party, despite the support people knew that this would not go ahead as Poland is a strict Catholic country nevertheless to have been this tolerant four years ago, it is a massive u-turn.
The EU are not getting involved, even though this member country has been found guilty of violating Human Rights. How long with we just sit back and let this happen? Even news stories concerning protests against Poland are being hidden away and the so-called unbiased BBC has not given an ounce of coverage to any of these events, yet will go on about non-EU members breaches of Human Rights in this manner. London Mayor Ken Livingston spoke out against the Lativa governments stance on the Pride March that was allowed to go ahead peacefully in Riga this month, where are his comments or any comments from British ministers concerning the same situation in Poland?
The European Convention states that member countries must "ensure that LGBT people are protected from homophobic hate speech and violence" and be treated with "respect, dignity and protection". How can we speak out against Lativa and stay silent on Poland?
Sources: (Sorry it's mostly 'The Rainbow Network', it's difficult to find other news sources on this issue. If you find any, please send me them.)
Writers facing expulsion from Poland's schools (The Times, June 9th), Gay Pride in Riga Goes Ahead Peacefully (Rainbow Network, 5th June), Livingstone: Latvia Must Allow Pride To Go On Peacefully (Rainbow Network, 4th June), Tinky-Winky's been Handbagged (The Times, May 30th), Youth Protest Outside Polish Embassy (Rainbow Network, 21st May), Warsaw Pride Broke EU Convention (Rainbow Network, 4th May), Anti-Gay Miniser Blames 'Homos' for Protests (Rainbow Network, 18th May 2006), Polish President Warns against Gay Culture (Rainbow Network, 8th November 2006), Poland Plans Civil Unions (Rainbow Network, 29th August 2003)
Normal events are being resumed now... (ie I'm thinking up ways to torture Holmes and working on my article), just had to get that off my chest. I might upload some pretty pictures later to make up for ranting....